Stuart Showalter is a child custody policy advisor to Indiana state policy makers as well as attorneys on child custody cases. For parents he offers child custody based life coaching to help them maintain control of their lives, increase their fitness as parents and manage their litigation so they can truly serve the best interest of their children. He provides this Law Blog as free opinion on various issues. Reader submissions of topics are welcomed. Send to Stuart@StuartShowalter.com

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Are you viewing your child custody modification evidence through a false script and lens? and What is Natural?

Like comedy, the evidence in a child custody proceeding is subject to perception. I wrote about how your personal perceptions are your responsibility in If this offends you then your child custody case may have a problem. In this monograph I want you to explore how societal scripts and the lens by which you view evidence may affect your child custody modification proceeding. I am using natural, environmentalism, and the nature of man as the platform for this examination.

For a moment, relax, visualize your most idyllic natural scene. The breeze, the sounds, the scents -- that carries the smoke, that thunders from gunfire and tanks, that reeks of rotting corpses. A scene from World War II may be the quintessence of natural.

Death and extinction are part of the natural process. The Samsara, more popular in the East, sees existence as a cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth that adapts to the ever changing environment. There were far more species of flora and fauna that went extinct prior to the emergence of modern homo sapiens than existed upon that emergence. This is because all are in a constant battle for dominance and control of resources. A tree grows tall and bears lightweight flowery seed pods not to be majestic but simply to proliferate. Every living organism procreates well in excess of that which is required for replacement. This is because of the natural, incessant battle for dominance. This includes the intra-specie conflict where one seed with a more dominant root structure chokes its neighbor or a stronger pup excludes a weaker litter mate from suckling the tit. This natural process strengthens the specie.

Ultra conservative humans want to inhibit this process ostensibly from the benevolent motive to preserve nature. They do so under the banner of environmentalism or protection of wildlife. These sophists deceive through deployment of euphemisms, or loaded words such as ‘managed’ or ‘destroying’.

Vast areas have been set aside as national parks, nature preserves, managed forest, or protected wetlands. But what does it mean to manage these lands? Quite simply it has involved protection of particular prey by killing a predator or facilitating growth of one plant specie through exclusion of another labeled ‘invasive’.

Man is said to destroy the landscape, the environment . . . the earth! We can do none. We can only modify and we modify consistent with nature -- our natural inclinations. Ask yourself if you -- or mankind generally -- naturally feel compelled to modify the environment. To attain comfort through construction of shelter using modern man-made materials delivered by motor vehicle across roadways pervading our landscape converging in this concrete jungle. Do you naturally feel a desire to have food readily available for you at a grocery store? If so then it is within your nature to dominate the land or other peoples who compete for these resources. Fresh water, not oil, will likely be the catalyst to future wars.

Epicurus said that seeking pleasure was the nature of man. As well, procreation for dominance is fundamental to the nature of man. The suppression of inter-specie and intra-specie conflict is a pipedream never to be realized because it is so unnatural. Indiana was the first jurisdiction in the world to legislate an attempt to create a more perfect race of man through forced sterilizations of undesirables. Although outlawed statutorily it is carried on through an ethos, perpetuated by marketing, as to what attributes of a person constitutes a desirable mate.

Intra-specie conflict is alive and well. Racial conflict as racial solidarity is as natural as the distinct denizens of the various species of felines. In good times, a robust economy, plentiful resources, and tranquility racial or specie conflict is muted. But watch a prison riot. When I was there the guys at my side were white and everyone else separated into their racial groupings. I suspect that the sociologist who advised on how to regain control of a prison proposed that the responding guards should position themselves by racial continuity to gain a natural allegiance of the prisoners. It is this exclusiveness of specie that would likely have a white prisoner align himself with the white guard standing before him with a baton and can of mace instead of the black prisoners across the yard.

Even the religious based pogroms of World War II, Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and many others over the past few millennia are a natural result of the exclusiveness and rightness of cults or nations.

Aggression, war, and dominance over one’s environment is part of the natural evolution of man and every other living inhabitant of the earth. It should be embraced. So do as you feel your nature compels and if it modifies the environment to such a degree that some other specie can’t survive then too bad for it by not adapting. That is truly being a naturalist.

The obsequious conformity to which so-called “naturalists” or “environmentalists” march lockstep in their quest to “save the planet” is disturbing. It is precisely this obsequious conformity that so easily led to the slaughter of 20 million Chinese and millions of others during WWII.

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Now that you have read that do you have a different perception or feeling of what it is to be natural? Natural is “of or in agreement with the character or makeup of, or circumstances surrounding, someone or something.” If it is natural for man to explore his environment, make tools, and modify his environment then does it follow that all we have created is part of the natural progression of life on earth? That certainly goes against the common perception of what is natural and the so-called liberals who seek to maintain a stoic existence through ultra conservatism.

In applying evidence in a child custody proceeding I suggest that a liberal view of what constitutes a best practice be fully examined. Just as in viewing ‘environmentalists’ and now seeing them as ultra conservatives, the view of evidence and the particular scripts that have been applied to perceptions must also be shed. By doing this you can present what may presumptively be adverse evidence in a logically constructed manner that rebuts that presumption.

Parents who would like to achieve the best outcome for their children in a contested child custody case should visit my website and contact my scheduler to make an appointment to meet with me. Attorneys may request a free consultation to learn how I can maximize their advocacy for their clients.

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About Me

As a child custody policy advisor I have written and had child custody related legislation passed into law. My counseling of lawyers and appearances as an expert witness have helped them achieve more favorable results for their clients including winning appeals, gaining parenting time, reducing conflict, and mediating agreements. Additionally I made important contributions to the amended Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines that went into effect March 2013 and am currently formulating recommendations for the Indiana Child Support Guidelines which are to be amended this year. For parents I offer child custody based life coaching to help them maintain control of their lives and increase their fitness as parents so they can truly serve the best interest of their children.